October 1/12 10:04 am - Forest City Velodrome season Opens

Posted by Editoress on 10/1/12

The 2012-13 racing season kicked off at the Forest City Velodrome in London, Ontario, on Saturday night (September 29th).

The Youth division had many new racers attending and entering the competition for the first time. The youth racers did their usual handicap event and the kids also took part in their own Mini Sprint Tournament for the first time. By the smiles on their faces, everyone had a wonderful time, great event. The parents all said they would be back next week to perform during the 6 Day race weekend.

Young riders

Warm up ride

In the three Divisions racing during the opening night, the women had their own sprint tournament. Kristen Sears (Invita-FCV) and Sarah Mason (Invita-FCV) came away with two wins each in the round robin tournament. Kim Edwards from the USA took the Elite Women's competition.

Logan McIntyre, Cam Mason and Lucas Taylor all had excellent sprint races and came away with a win during the night.

The evening ended with a Madison. It was one of the best Madison races at the FCV in quite some time. All the teams have been training every Wednesday night to perfect their exchanges, and the speed and attacks were fast and furious.

All the teams were aggressive from the opening whistle, each team taking their turn in going off the front of the race. The most aggressive team were the pairing of Geoff Power and Logan McIntyre. Both riders put in some very hard moves, however nothing was able to stick. Quinn Hannan and Sarah Mason were on the front driving the pace early on in the 100 lap event. In the end the team faded a bit to finish fourth.

The speed of the race was outstanding, with several laps going under 8.3 seconds, which converts to 58 kph. The average speed of the race was 48 kph.

In the end, the mixed team of Lucas Taylor and Mike Renneboog set up the final ten laps the best. Taylor missed (or did he?) an exchange with six laps to go. This is usually the kiss of death leading into the final kilometre. However the missed exchange turned into gold with their final exchange. With two laps to go, they caught all the other teams doing an extra lap and a half to get to the finish (we all know the feeling of fat legs). Renneboog took the final exchange and charged over the top of the three teams ahead of him to win the final by two bike lengths over the team of Candice Vermuelin and Cam Mason.

Next racing at the Forest City Velodrome begins this Thursday night (October 4th) at 7:00 pm. The FCV Memorial Day bike race will also start - the first 6 Day race in London in four years.